Theatre: Something wicked this way comes

Where did Glinda the good and her evil green rival in The Wizard of Oz come from? A new musical has all

It’s always said that no show can prosper for long on Broadway without The New York Times’s rubber stamp. And no show there has ever defied that newspaper’s critical omnipotence quite so dramatically as a musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz, Wicked. Without any encouragement from the NYT — “bloated”, “oversized”, complained its critic, Ben Brantley — packed houses have been giving Wicked standing ovations every night for three years now. The show cost its investors a socking outlay of $14m, but within 14 months they started turning a sinfully large profit. The Grammy-winning cast album, with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, has been the most successful on Broadway since Rent. A travelling production is out on a tour of North America, a third production is parked in Chicago and another is heading for LA early in 2007. And now, as another tidal wave of hit musicals lands on London